>>150349942 (OP)
I wish she either had just stayed as the love interest and allowed Peedee to be Steven's buddy and emotional foil, or take over Peedee's role fully as a foil for Steven. I think it was a bad move to make Connie into Steven's buddy and love interest if there wasn't going to be some sort of emotional contrast or bigger capacity for tension and conflict between the two. I'm not saying they needed to be violent or nasty or rude or cruel to one another, but that they needed to have more of an ideological disagreement, differing perspectives and value systems that would result in each side growing and maturing as people the more time they spent around each other. Steven learns to be more grounded while Connie gets herself out of the hole she's dug for herself.
I imagine in a different world, Connie is introduced the same way as she was in canon, except she's got Peedee's disposition as a sad/moody/tired/gloomy nerdy girl who acts as the pessimist to Steven's optimist, the cynic to Steven's realist.
Steven Universe shines whenever the story involves someone that doesn't already conform to Steven's way of thinking (Jasper, Spinel, etc), and instead challenges it, questions it, or acts as an opposing extreme.
